Aweil Crusade Preparation: The Dinka People

It is dry season and the ground is hard and cracked. As we drive slowly past the little cattle-raiding villages of the Dinka people, naked children are swimming in small puddles of swampy, muddy water, trying to find a bit of moisture.

Cattle Camp

The nomadic, cattle-herding Dinka people are rough warriors who carry spears, and at times, guns. They keep their cows with AK47’s to fight off other tribes who may come to raid them and then use the guns at night for raiding vehicles and any other passengers moving on the roads after dark.

The Dinka raid and kill, measuring their ‘success’ and ‘wealth’ according to the number of cattle they can accumulate or steal from one another. Most of the tribal fighting are from disputes over grazing land, water, or their nomadic dwelling boundaries.

Their cattle are herded through jungle and brush, trying to find any water or grazing ground. The tribes know the territories they are allowed to graze in and dare not cross those imaginary lines for any greener stubble, or fighting will erupt again.

The Dinka here are very tall and very dark. They cover their heads with the white ash of burnt cow manure. Some have bleached their hair with a mixture of cow urine and dung applied to a top circle of hair. Their cows symbolize their wealth and belong to the whole clan.

More and More Cows

Our hearts yearn for the spiritual freedom and the heart transformation of these precious people. All they have known is fighting, but Malachi 4 is repeated softly and persistently from my lips,“Unto them that fear His name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings, and they will come out like newborn calves, skipping, and leaping from the stall.”And we are the ones that fear His name on behalf of our precious Dinka brothers and sisters. He alone is our Prince of Peace, and only He can be their peace as well.

Our hearts are filled with His presence, as we read Rom 10:14,15, Psalm 91, Isaiah 35, and Jeremiah 51:20. Our God is a devouring fire. He goes before us. He is a man of war, the roaring lion of Judah, and with the high praises of God in our mouths, and a two-edged sword in our hands (Psalm 149:6), we move through this land in order to see “the kingdoms of this world, become the kingdoms of our Lord and our God.”